Crank

Spend five minutes reading my lame intertubes journal and it's pretty clear that I'm a crank.

That's fine, it's an important job... Or role, I don't get paid for this nonsense.

Of course I think the stuff I'm a crank about is worth cranking. Otherwise I wouldn't crank. But I know not everyone sees things as I do- for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes I'm dumb, sometimes other people are dumb. I'm sensitive to things other people couldn't care less about. Whatever- there is a whole world of crank out there.

For example, in another post I made reference to Jimmy Carter's new book where he describes what he thinks is necessary to ending the apartheid and violence in Israel. I think it's about an important subject, and from the excerpt I've read, it seems it's worth reading the whole thing. It's also worth mentioning again- it's on my Amazon Wishlist. He's not the first or only person to say these things. But because he's an Evangelical Christian, a veteran, a minister, a Nobel Prize winner, a Habitat for Humanitarian he's a bigger problem than the people that can be dismissed as crazy hippies. It's kind of difficult to impugn his character, patriotism, Christianity, or sincerity without really turning up the crank and looking like a lunatic or total jerk. Jimmy Carter, Jew hater. Really?

That's bad crank. An AlterNet editor offers his thoughts and a summary of some of the other bad crank that's going around right now. But I can't wait until the Christian Crank gets rolling. It'll take a while, Christians are typically behind the curve on most things. But when it does, it'll be crazy. Because Carter's a pretty good dude, and because few people actually care to dialogue the crank will be turned up to 11... and it will be crazy.

People can get pretty nasty when it comes to politics, add idolatrous nationalism and crazy theology to the mix and they get even nastier- and wackier. We should get a pool going to see when someone will first call JImmy Carter a, or the, Anti-Christ.